Infamous conwoman Samantha Azzopardi applies to dismiss charges for lying about sex assualt
An infamous conwoman with 40 aliases and international fraud convictions has tried to have criminal charges dismissed on mental health grounds after she lied about being the victim of sex assault.
Macarthur
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An infamous conwoman with 40 aliases and international fraud convictions has tried to have criminal charges dismissed on mental health grounds after she lied about being the victim of a sex assault.
Samantha Azzopardi, 32, appeared in Picton Court on Friday after pleading guilty to two charges of falsely representing an act to police.
According to the police facts, the Douglas Park resident contacted a youth worker at Youth Off The Streets on November 19 and claimed she was a teenage member of a cult. The facts state Azzopardi told the youth worker her parents had sent her from Brisbane to live with a man who had regular non-consensual sex with her, took photos of her, and held her captive.
She told the youth worker she sometimes slept in the park to avoid the ‘22-year-old man’, according to documents tendered to the court. The youth worker subsequently called the Child Protection Helpline, which triggered a police investigation.
The police facts state officers arranged with the youth worker to meet Azzopardi, who was using the 16-year-old alias Eleanor Harris, on November 22 but the accused failed to show.
Court documents allege that a week later, Azzopardi went to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and told a doctor she was a 16-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted. She allegedly spun the doctor a story similar to what she’d told the youth worker, adding that she had been injected with a fertility drug against her wishes. However, documents tendered to the court state she ran off before the doctor was able to perform an examination.
Later that day, the facts state she met with the youth worker who noticed she had a bruise under her eye. According to the documents, Azzopardi told her ‘Aaron’ had hit her. However, police noted the bruise was absent when they visited her house on the same day.
Azzopardi was arrested on December 1 after she made allegedly another call to the youth worker, who informed police.
This is not the first time the 32-year-old has impersonated a teenager, according to the court documents which state she previously pretended to be a 13-year-old girl to enrol in school.
Azzopardi has 40 recognised aliases and has been convicted of international fraud, the documents state.
“The accused is skilled at fraud and con artistry,” the police facts state.
“(H)er uncontrollable desire to make fictitious reports sees countless resources being drawn from legitimate victims and investigations.”
According to the court documents, Azzopardi falsely claimed she was a victim of human trafficking in Ireland and cause police to launch a $300,000 investigation. She also wasted $159,000 in Canadian police resources when she told police she was kidnapped and tortured.
Back in Australia, she has been charged with 99 domestic offences across different states related to fraud and deception.
The court heard Azzopardi lied to the social worker and police only weeks after she was released from a two year jail sentence in Victoria for kidnapping two children in 2019.
Azzopardi’s lawyer Carolyn Shiels told the court none of the offences, even that very serious “child stealing” charge, involved violence or malicious intent.
“The offending is not in the realm of emptying people’s banks accounts, it’s more in the avenue of what could be regarded as attention,” she said.
Her lawyer said Azzopardi has depressive disorder, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder. However, police prosecutor Sharon Garbutt argued there was no formal diagnosis given in the psychologist’s report tendered to the court.
Ms Shiels told the court her client’s mental illness was the cause of her continuous offending, and asked for the charges to be dismissed on that basis.
“In relation to her criminal history, it’s extensive (and) directly related to her psychiatric condition,” she said.
“I would submit that nothing is going to change unless we give my client this opportunity.”
Although she admitted Azzopardi’s record was serious, Ms Shiels said her client had previously been given jail sentences and no support for her mental illness.
She told the court Azzopardi had reached a turning point when she finally realised she had a mental health issue.
“(T)his is the first time my client has faced that she has what seems to be a personality disorder,” she said.
“I would submit that the court needs to reward her for facing that confronting reality that she’s not mentally stable when it comes to this offending behaviour.”
Ms Shiels told the court her client was engaged with treatment, and the application to dismiss the charges was made “in the hope that my client will be given an opportunity that has never been afforded to her before”.
However, Ms Garbutt told the court Azzopardi had previously been provided with numerous opportunities to address her mental illness in the past but she had told counsellors she didn’t need help.
“She has failed to attend to the behaviours that contribute to the offending,” she said.
Ms Garbutt said the proposed treatment plan was “inadequate to address the complex mental health issues”, and lacked the cohesion to engage Azzopardi. She argued a proper treatment plan could be incorporated in the finalisation of the criminal matters, rather than forming the basis for dismissal of the charges.
“Treatment plans can, and often do, form part of sentencing procedures,” she said.
“In the context of antecedents, these allegations are too serious for the matter to be dealt with in any way except the criminal legislation.”
Azzopardi appeared in Picton court in a black suit, blue shirt, and pink scarf which she used to hide her blonde hair on the way into court.
Azzopardi was released on bail in late December after 20 days in custody and given extremely strict bail conditions, which include not accessing a computer or using the internet on her phone.
Magistrate Mark Douglass adjourned the matter to consider the considerable amount of material tendered to the court.
Azzopardi will return to Picton Court later this month.
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